Re: Processes vs Threads

From: Paul Beardsell <psb_at_sambusys.demon.co.uk>
Date: Mon, 7 Nov 1994 11:22:56 +0000
Message-ID: <784207376snz_at_sambusys.demon.co.uk>


In article <lchutsonCynEns.HI8_at_netcom.com>

           lchutson_at_netcom.com "Lawrence Hutson" writes:

> Paul, I have followed your arguments abput threads and they seem
> to make sense.

Well, thanks. :-) But I thought someone from Encina or OSF would chip in and we could have a real argument.

> But what about assigning threads or process'es for
> that matter to certain processor's in a multi-processor environment.
> Is there support for this ? Would this make threads usefull?

Some multi-processor systems allow a process to be tied to one processor. Often it is better to allow the O/S scheduler to dynamically schedule the load. An SMP-compliant machine will (by default) move a process from one processor to another during the lifetime of the process as required. Some other machines never move a process from one processor to another.

I'm not aware of threads within one process ever being run on different processors. I don't think even Sun do this.

> Another question is what about NT? Is there support for fork() and
> exec()? I thought NT was POSIX compliant.

I hope so. But fork() had better be quick and cheap or we're going to be forced to use those abysmal threads.

> Just A few thoughts.
>
> Lawrence C. Hutson, Consultant
> Hutson Consulting Inc.
> On Assignment _at_ GTE Network Operations
 

-- 
Paul Beardsell                          SAM Business Systems Ltd
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Received on Mon Nov 07 1994 - 12:22:56 CET

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